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Letters to the Editor published Feb. 16, 2011
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Society is most grateful

Editor, Ceres Courier,

The St. Jude's St. Vincent de Paul Society is thankful to all who, in some way, helped to make our Christmas basket giveaways a success.

We are grateful for the food and toy donations and especially thankful for all the volunteer help; we could not have done it without them. Our Society assisted 333 families, 1,526 individuals in December; 356 happy children received toys.

We give special thanks to Del Ambris at Cost Less Foods; Sensient Dehydrated Foods of Cressey; Wonder Hostess Bread in Modesto; Gemperle Enterprises of Turlock; Producers Dairy Foods in Ceres; Ceres Fire Captain Rich Scola; Ceres Firefighters and the Hands of Compassion. Also Melissa Smith, Mae Hensley Leadership Class, Dollar Store, Trinidad Co., Sange Latina, Skanless Car Clubs, Sinclear Elementary School students, Casey's Moving Systems, Sid Long, Scott Long, Three Amigos Auto Center.

Thank you and God bless!

Helen Marchy,

President,

St. Vincent de Paul Society,

St. Jude's Catholic Church,

Ceres

(Editor's note: This letter should have been published last week instead of one written a year prior. We apologize for the fact that a letter regarding the 2009 Christmas event was published).

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Likes new manager at complex

Editor, Ceres Courier,

I would like to answer the "Sound Off!" of Feb. 9, "Managers are a disaster." My mom happens to live at Whitmore Oaks. It is actually a beautiful, gated apartment complex for seniors. They changed managers several months ago. My mom is quite active at the complex, attends the potlucks, brings food, uses the clubhouse, and when there is a problem that needs management he is there usually in 10 minutes. Since the new managers have arrived, they now enjoy potluck breakfasts - not many attend yet but mom and her friends do and the manager does. The new manager set out all sorts of goodies on New Year's - he didn't have to - and only a couple of people showed up!

Young people are not allowed at the complex, so if there is a problem, I'm sure the offenders will be found out and dealt with.

You wonder what could be done about the new managers? How about coming to potlucks, getting to know your neighbors, go into the office and say hello to your managers and try to get to know them?

I am grateful to the managers at Whitmore Oaks for all they do. There is no disaster going on at Whitmore Oaks!

Sandra DeMott,

Atwater

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Opposed to center

Editor, Ceres Courier,

I am not in support of the Supercenter.

Traffic will be horrendous at the Mitchell Road on and offramps. It gets backed up there now off and on. It might become like the Briggsmore/99/Sisk Road mess.

Is Walmart going to pay for the widening of the on and offramps?

Our tax dollars will go up to pay for the road work. The state is broke.

It's a bad idea.

If Walmart want to be near the freeway, why not switch with Kmart?

It's good to keep Ceres a small town and have a few open spaces left without Walmart paving over it all.

I'm worried I won't have easy freeway access at Mitchell Road anymore because of Walmart backed up traffic at Service and Mitchell. It's bad there at Hatch and Mitchell.

Susan Alaya,

Ceres

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Church to feed students Thursday

Editor, Ceres Courier,

The children of the Ceres School District will be out of school Feb. 14-18. Knowing that this time off will cause an extra burden on some Ceres families, Corey Crawford, manager of the Ceres Food 4 Less and Janet Wright, Donations Coordinator for the Potter's House, have partnered with Colony Park Mobilehome Estates to have lunch for children. It will be held in the clubhouse of Colony Park Mobilehome Estates, 3232 S. Central Ave., Ceres, at noon on Thursday, Feb. 17. There will be hot dogs, chips, pouch drinks and cookies for the children. Donations will be gladly accepted (you may call Janet at 214-2577).

Pastor Wayna,

Potter's House,

Ceres

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Supercenter approval would spell doom

Editor, Ceres Courier,

Earlier this year, after opposition, Wal-Mart withdrew its special-use permit to build near the hallowed Civil War site where Robert E. Lee first met Ulysses S. Grant on the battlefield in 1864.

It would be too good to be true, if the same thing would happen here in Ceres. Maybe the proposed supercenter site isn't near hallowed ground, but it could be prevented from being built for other reasons. The site does contain prime farmland and Walmart is not paying a premium to build on that valuable prime farmland; and according to Wal-Mart's own study, two local grocery stores would be put out of business because of the proposed Supercenter.

Along with the closing of those businesses with better paying jobs, Ceres can then expect to lose jobs associated with the grocery stores, such as jobs for suppliers, transporters, accountants, and so on. These highly-skilled and educated individuals will leave our community in search of better opportunities. Ceres will be left with more Walmart jobs that are low paying and have poor benefits for most employees.

If we let Walmart have its way, the area will surely see a drop in in the number of local community leaders, as well, a statistic that is born out by the facts. In other words, there will be fewer business association members, fewer church pastors, fewer community organization members, and so forth, a result of a community's dwindling middle-class.

Walmart can say whatever they want in their ads, we know that the demise of mom-and-pop stores like Richland Market, Save Mart, Cost Less, and Raleys leads to poverty because most Wal-Mart wages are poverty wages.

I hope to see opposition to the proposed project at the Feb. 22 Planning Commission Meeting; otherwise, more area residents will end up in the unemployment line.

Rick Rushton,

Ceres



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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

Letters to the editor will be considered for publication but must be signed with the author's name, address and telephone number. Letters should contain 250 words or less and be void of libelous statements. Letters may be sent to The Ceres Courier, P.O. Box 7, Ceres, CA 95307, or emailed to jeffb@cerescourier.com